1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for filling bags with sand, dirt, or other similar material.
2. Description of the Invention Background
Sandbags are needed for many uses such as erosion control, flood control, and military fortifications. Another use of sandbags is for supporting a pipeline in a trench prior to backfilling the trench. With an oil or gas pipeline which stretches for miles, sometimes up to 100,000 sandbags per mile are needed to support the pipe and prevent the underside of the pipe from contacting rocks on the bottom of the trench which could damage the pipe, and for erosion control on hillsides.
Sandbags needed for flood control are often needed in large numbers and must be prepared under adverse conditions. The same may be true for military fortifications. The need for speed has led to the development of bag filling apparatus of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,041 which provides for a plurality of chutes enabling a plurality of bags to be filled simultaneously. Multiple bagging chutes are also found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,346 directed to a Sand-Bagging Attachment for Dump Trucks. The apparatus of the aforementioned patents suffer from several drawbacks. First, workers are required to visually determine when a sandbag has reached a desired fullness. Additionally, such apparatus provide for the workers to manually interrupt the flow of sand to the bags. That results in bags which are often under or over filled. That also provides an opportunity for workers to slow the bag filling operation. Therefore, it is desirable to have a bag filling apparatus which automatically interrupts the flow of material to the bag when the bag has reached a desired fullness and begins to fill the next bag automatically for a continuous bag filling operation.